Jill Scott performs at Essence Music Festival at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on July 5, 2013, in New Orleans. / Adrienne Battistella, Invision for Essence

by Alex Rawls, Special for USA TODAY

by Alex Rawls, Special for USA TODAY

NEW ORLEANS - No one goes wrong at Essence Music Festival by playing it old school. Not slow-jam maestro Maxwell, who headlined, not jazz/soul singer Jill Scott and not LL Cool J, one of the few hip-hop artists invited to play "the party with a purpose" that opened Friday night in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. In one of the festival's superlounges, producer Teddy Riley of Blackstreet interrupted a string of hits he'd written or produced for Michael Jackson, Heavy D and New Edition to ask the audience to raise their hands if they're old school. Few requests of the night received a more unanimous, enthusiastic response.

No rating system needed: Essence Fest reflects Essence magazine's values, which has made it slow to embrace hip-hop, which historically has women issues. LL Cool J gets a pass because first-generation rap seems nostalgic now, and it's lyrically innocent by comparison. LL evoked rap's early days with Rock the Bells and I Can't Live Without My Radio - his first two hits - and brought out another first-generation act, EPMD, to perform Rampage with him. He went further, though, recalling the emcee's initial role in hip-hop as the hype man for the DJ, the guy who started the party. LL wasn't precious about his time or art, instead doing whatever he could to create a good time. He invited a dozen fans out of the audience and on stage to dance to Brick House, and when one lingered as the women were being escorted off, he challenged her to show her moves. "I ain't afraid," he said as she started to dance. The sequence could have been raunchy with another artist, but he's such a family presence by now that it never got past PG-13.

Take two: "I was on time this time," Maxwell said with a smile. When he last played Essence in 2009, he didn't start until 1:30 a.m. But Friday, the pre-set music, Got to Give It Up by Marvin Gaye (more old school), started right at 9, and soon after Maxwell was on stage singing Sumthin' Sumthin'. He breezed through the set with little commitment, though, and the audience responded in kind. The show remained awkward and mutually disengaged until he sang Gods from an album that will be released "some time," he said sheepishly. Perhaps because the song is newer, he performed with a passion that he hadn't shown earlier, and the audience warmed immediately. He followed it with an equally emotional This Woman's Work and the set effectively restarted.

The neo-soul singer doesn't have many speeds, slow jams being his strong suit. That wasn't a problem for most of the crowd, even though he ended a long night of music. His show never became too comfortable, but Essence audiences are very forgiving. No one seemed to mind that a giant Alicia Keys loomed over Maxwell on the video screen as he sang Fire We Make, a song he recorded with her. He acknowledged having a hard time getting a feel for the crowd in the cavernous room and was thrown by the famous faces in the front rows. When he teased Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder), the crowd was so enthusiastic that he turned it into an a cappella sing-along, even after he tried to beg out of it because "it's so old."

The other queen: Mary J. Blige has been one of the queens of Essence, presenting the lives of the women in the audience as dramatic tales of struggle and triumph. She's not at Essence this year, but another queen, Jill Scott, is. Her relationship with the crowd is more aspirational, as she presents similar stories as art. Dressed in white with an African print wrap, Scott stood in front of a nighttime cityscape backdrop to suggest an urbane alternative.

Musically, she worked with a much broader palate than Blige at her Essence appearances, by turns funky, then swinging easily on A Long Walk. Scott smiled, no matter what drama the song recounted, and only showed off her pipes and her effort in the show-closing He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat).

Remembering Whitney: During her opening set Friday night, Brandy reminded the Essence audience that she was born about an hour from New Orleans. Playing as the crowd files in can be thankless, but Brandy performed as if the room were packed and hers, starting sing-alongs and stretching out Top of the World and Baby to let the funk ride for a bit. When she paid surprise tribute to Whitney Houston, Brandy played to her strengths as she performed a medley of Houston's more playful songs - I'm Your Baby Tonight, How Will I Know and I Wanna Dance With Somebody - instead of the diva favorites that have become singing-competition staples.